{"id":125301,"date":"2025-08-07T03:33:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T03:33:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125301\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T03:33:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T03:33:12","slug":"jen-pawol-to-make-history-as-first-woman-umpire-in-major-league-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/125301\/","title":{"rendered":"Jen Pawol to make history as first woman umpire in Major League Baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Jen Pawol<\/a> is set to become the first woman to umpire in Major League Baseball when she works games this weekend between the Miami Marlins and Atlanta Braves.<\/p>\n

Pawol will work the bases in Saturday\u2019s doubleheader at Truist Park and the plate on Sunday, MLB told The Associated Press on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis historic accomplishment in baseball is a reflection of Jen\u2019s hard work, dedication and love of the game,\u201d baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. \u201cShe has earned this opportunity, and we are proud of the strong example she has set, particularly for all the women and young girls who aspire to roles on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pawol, a 48-year-old from New Jersey, worked spring training games<\/a> in 2024 and this year. She will become the fifth umpire to debut this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBaseball\u2019s done a great job of being completely inclusive,\u201d Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. \u201cI\u2019ll be watching. It\u2019s good for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

MLB\u2019s move comes 28 years after the gender barrier for game officials was broken in the NBA, 10 years after the NFL hired its first full-time female official and three years after the men\u2019s soccer World Cup employed a female referee. The NHL still has not had any women as on-ice officials.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if she is a good enough umpire, obviously she deserves to be here,\u201d Toronto pitcher Kevin Gausman said.<\/p>\n

Pawol in 2024 became the first woman to umpire big league spring training games since Ria Cortesio in 2007. Cortesio spent nine years in the minor leagues, including the last five in the Double-A Southern League, then was released after the 2007 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had seen her in spring training a lot,\u201d Philadelphia Phillies star Trea Turner said. \u201cI don\u2019t know much about her or statistics or anything like that, but if she\u2019s doing a great job, I love seeing the opportunity for her, and I\u2019m happy for her. I talked to her a little bit in spring training and she seems like a great person and I wish her all the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pawol was an all-state softball and soccer player in New Jersey for three seasons in each sport at West Milford High School. She went to Hofstra on a softball scholarship and became a three-time all-conference pick and was on the USA Baseball women\u2019s national baseball team in 2001.<\/p>\n

Pawol got a master\u2019s degree and was living in the Binghamton area of New York and taking teacher certification classes at Elmira College while still playing on the side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t really satisfied,\u201d she said last year. \u201cComing off of a huge competitive career, just playing locally, I wasn\u2019t getting my fix. And I remember looking at the umpire and being like, I think that\u2019s it. I got to go for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

After umpiring NCAA softball from 2010-16, she attended an MLB umpire tryout camp in 2015, was invited to the Umpire Training Academy at Vero Beach, Florida, and was offered a job in the Gulf Coast League in 2016. She\u2019s been working in the minor leagues since, including for the 2023 Triple-A championship game.<\/a><\/p>\n

Violet Palmer became the NBA\u2019s first female referee when she worked Dallas\u2019 opener at Vancouver on Oct. 31, 1997. Shannon Eastin<\/a> became the NFL\u2019s first female on-field official on Sept. 9, 2012, for San Diego\u2019s game at St. Louis as a replacement when regular officials were locked out, and Sarah Thomas was the NFL\u2019s first regular female on-field official<\/a> when she served as line judge for Kansas City\u2019s game at Houston on Sept. 13, 2015. <\/p>\n

St\u00e9phanie Frappart of France became the first woman to referee a men\u2019s World Cup game<\/a> when she worked Germany\u2019s 4-2 group stage win over Costa Rica on Dec. 1, 2022, and Rebecca Welch became the first to referee in England\u2019s Premier League<\/a> when she officiated Burnley\u2019s 2-0 win at Fulham on Dec. 23, 2023.<\/p>\n

MLB has 76 full-time staff umpires and uses fill-ins on crews for openings created by injuries and vacations.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Walker is a retired AP Baseball Writer.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Sports Writer Beth Harris and AP freelance writer Jack Magruder contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP MLB: https:\/\/apnews.com\/MLB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Jen Pawol is set to become the first woman to umpire in Major League…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":125302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1280,591,875,10104,57,4353,4345,77063,16755,1286,53749,1266,1822,47072,401,77067,77065,21368,3549,77064,77068,62,7012,23993,77066,3695,61,67,132,68,77069],"class_list":{"0":"post-125301","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-atlanta-braves","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-dave-roberts","11":"tag-ga-state-wire","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-georgia","14":"tag-houston","15":"tag-jen-pawol","16":"tag-kevin-gausman","17":"tag-miami-marlins","18":"tag-minor-league-baseball","19":"tag-mlb","20":"tag-mlb-baseball","21":"tag-mlb-spring-training","22":"tag-new-jersey","23":"tag-rebecca-welch","24":"tag-ria-cortesio","25":"tag-rob-manfred","26":"tag-san-diego","27":"tag-sarah-thomas","28":"tag-shannon-eastin","29":"tag-sports","30":"tag-sports-officiating","31":"tag-st-louis","32":"tag-stphanie-frappart","33":"tag-trea-turner","34":"tag-u-s-news","35":"tag-united-states","36":"tag-unitedstates","37":"tag-us","38":"tag-violet-palmer"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114985383306744583","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}